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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Performing Grrrlhood: A Lyrical Analysis Of Riot Grrrl Music, Vida Hasson
Performing Grrrlhood: A Lyrical Analysis Of Riot Grrrl Music, Vida Hasson
CMC Senior Theses
This thesis examines the lyrics of the three founding Riot Grrrl bands: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy. I explore how Riot Grrrl bands politicize girlhood to undermine patriarchal authority and empower girls to redefine feminism for themselves. I provide the historical context for Riot Grrrl as a political movement and its cultural impact in the 1990s. In my analysis I connect the lyrics to feminist discourse to demonstrate how Riot Grrrl provided women and girls a platform to discuss feminism and patriarchal oppression. Music has the power to send messages to the masses and Riot Grrrl's legacy proves …
A Unified Theory Of Musical Meaning, Luis Verdin
A Unified Theory Of Musical Meaning, Luis Verdin
CMC Senior Theses
In this thesis, I present a novel theory of musical meaning. This theory posits a complementary relationship between the theories described in Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music and Arnie Cox’s Music and Embodied Cognition. Each of these theories explain particular aspects of musical meaning (semantic and grammatical, respectively), though I argue that by unifying these theories into a broader framework, they can explain more about musical meaning than they could individually. This unification is performed via the novel theory I present: the Analogical Argument. This argument suggests that Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music is …
The Decline Of Contemporary Protest Music: A Textual Analysis Of Political Protest Music During The Bush, Obama, And Trump Presidencies, Anthony Madubuonwu
The Decline Of Contemporary Protest Music: A Textual Analysis Of Political Protest Music During The Bush, Obama, And Trump Presidencies, Anthony Madubuonwu
CMC Senior Theses
Throughout the late 20th century, protest music was a pivotal tool for musicians in the United States to galvanize public support for different socio-political causes. Protest music has existed for years: when people are dissatisfied with the status quo, they compose songs about it. These songs are generally written to be part of a social or ideological change movement, and to rile up that movement by bringing people together, empowering them to act or reflect. This thesis argues that we have seen a decline in contemporary protest music that is political in nature. When reviewing the last three presidencies of …
On The Total Communicative Efficacy Of Music And Its Synthesis To Written Word Through Bob Dylan And Kendrick Lamar, Skyler Addison
On The Total Communicative Efficacy Of Music And Its Synthesis To Written Word Through Bob Dylan And Kendrick Lamar, Skyler Addison
CMC Senior Theses
In a social conversation, words spoken carry less than 35% of the interaction’s social meeting, with 65% conveyed by the non-verbal. While poetry relies on the word and it's subtext, songwriting may also weld the other 65%. By dissecting the dynamic communicative aspects of song, modern poets may find useful ways in which they can make their lines have more staying power with the listener, encompassing both the rhythmic catchiness of their lines to an all-encompassing emotive transfer. We may isolate the interwoven components of a song that dictate how a story is told in order to better understand how …
International Music Preferences: An Analysis Of The Determinants Of Song Popularity On Spotify For The U.S., Norway, Taiwan, Ecuador, And Costa Rica, Brendan Joseph Suh
International Music Preferences: An Analysis Of The Determinants Of Song Popularity On Spotify For The U.S., Norway, Taiwan, Ecuador, And Costa Rica, Brendan Joseph Suh
CMC Senior Theses
This paper examines data from Spotify’s API for 2017-2018 to determine the effects of song attributes on the success of tracks on Spotify’s Top 200 Chart across five different countries: the U.S., Norway, Taiwan, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. Two dependent variables are used to measure the success of a song – a track’s peak position on the charts and the number of days it survives on a country’s Top 200 Chart. Using ten separate regressions, one for each dependent variable in all five countries, it is concluded that the presence of a featured guest on a track increases a song’s …
The Synthesizer: Modernist And Technological Transformations In Film Sound And Contemporary Music, Dusin J. Green
The Synthesizer: Modernist And Technological Transformations In Film Sound And Contemporary Music, Dusin J. Green
CMC Senior Theses
The invention of the synthesizer meant the possibility of achieving virtually any sound in one mechanism, a superbly convenient device for musical creativity. Perhaps the perfect space for this approval of sound creativity was in the modern electronic film score. The synthesizer also flourished in popular music immediately following its emergence, but a common form began to solidify itself among synthesizer music. Shortly after, improvements in electronic instrument technology led to the democratization of electronic music and equipment, ultimately leading to electronic music as the new mainstream.